“It belongs to the people later.” (Participant, UNM Participant Discussion, 2019)

Questions and discussions raised from participants in the panels showcased how these stories impacted affected communities, and how stories such as Acan’s and Amony’s can speak to the experiences of other survivors. Participants’ discussion on how ‘it [the exhibit] belongs to the people’ and ‘tells the story (…) to the generations to come’, signals how the exhibit encourages a reflection on the shared lived experiences of survivors and a discussion of how notions of kinship play a role in overcoming hardship and trauma.

Likewise, the language used in these questions show how notions of kinship and of sharing stories, through drawings and artefacts, were an important part of the responses to the exhibit – for example, as participants referred to Acan and Amony as ‘our sisters’ in the Ugandan National Museum participant discussion. 

“I was interested in the skirt. And, it tells the story, to me, to, to the generations to come (…) In the next fifty, hundred years, something which, which I was trying to reflect it, is it going to be, um that same skirt to come back again?”(Participant, UNM Participant Discussion, 2019)

Questions from participants on the artefacts used in the exhibit, and whether they would return to Uganda also demonstrate how the exhibit spoke to the political and social climate in Uganda that allowed for dialogues to be raised on transitional justice for girls, women, survivors of conjugal slavery, and those returning to their communities. Artefacts, such as Amony’s green skirt and the grinding stones, represent symbols of survival and of overcoming hardship, as interpreted from participants’ questions and responses to the exhibit.

Interpreting participants responses to the artefacts, and their meaning, also showcases how participants and audiences felt represented by these stories or encouraged to open up to share their own stories.